If you live nearby, you’ll probably have noticed two bits of yellow line painting done over the last week. The first was to refresh the hatched box at the bottom of Sinclair Close which had become somewhat faded. The second was to paint an entirely new box in front of the sub-station next to 7 Sinclair Place. The cost for this should be around £400, split amongst the Sinclair development (306 ways).

The reason for this was fairly straightforward: the council refuse lorries have to come into that area of the development to reach two sets of bin stores (one between 1 and 6 Sinclair Place, the other next to 19 Sinclair Place). When cars are parked in the area by the sub-station, it means that the refuse lorry cannot get out of the area without a difficult reversing manoeuvre, or by doing a U-turn near to 18 Sinclair Place (which is what they have been doing). In the process, the heavy refuse lorry goes over (or in a case from early November: straight through) the parking poles, damaging them. It was agreed with the council that we would paint lines to prevent parking in that area, allowing the refuse lorry to perform a three-point turn by reversing into that area.

What happens when a 10 tonne refuse lorry decides to go over your parking space

This is particularly relevant because by getting the refuse lorry to reverse into that area means that when it travels over the area of damaged mono-block, it is doing so more slowly, and also not cornering at the same time. This should hopefully minimise additional damage there, and mean that we have longer before an expensive repair is required.